In the Night
by 14karatgold
Summary: When she closes her eyes at night, all she hears are whispers, memories of nearforgotten times—his voice encouraging her, protecting her, and soothing her. It’s all she thinks about because he never came home. [Oneshot—Zidag]


In the Night

Summary- When she closes her eyes at night, all she hears are whispers, memories of near-forgotten times—his voice encouraging her, protecting her, and soothing her. It's all she thinks about because he never came home.

Angst/Romance

Rated T

Dagger/Zidane

Disclaimer- I would never claim to own anything related to this wonderful game. If I did own it, I'll bet all of you it wouldn't have been as good as it was.

Xxx

_"And what did Colin say?" Dagger asked, the boat under her feet rocking slightly as Zidane moved._

_He paused for a second, as though trying to remember, then his bright blue-green eyes bore into her chocolate ones, as if conveying something to her beyond his next words. "'Only because I wanted to.'"_

Queen Garnet til Alexandros XVII opened her eyes slowly and got out of bed. She went to the washbasin in the corner of her room so she could dab her sweaty face off with the cold water. This was routine, so much so that she rarely remembered it in the morning. She moved carefully back towards her lonely bed and then realized she wouldn't be able to sleep again for the next few hours. She might as well get some paperwork finished in that time. It might even help to bore her brain the point where she can sleep without hearing him taunting her from wherever he was.

"Princess, are you alright?" Steiner asked as he entered her room, likely drawn by the sudden sounds of movement he had heard from his temporary post outside her door.

"Steiner, I'm a Queen. Have been for ten years," Garnet answered from the coldest corner of her rapidly blackening heart. She made to sat down, but eventually decided to stand instead. Her feet protested, but she ignored it. If she sat down, it would proved to Steiner that she was not alright. If she appeared strong, as usual, maybe he would go away and leave her be.

"Yes, I know, but that name reminds me of the times when you smiled. Of our adventures, even if the leader of those adventures was a…." he drifted off, finally realizing what she must be thinking about, and deciding not to continue his sentence because of it.

"I don't need to be reminded of the times that have passed, Captain. What I need to do is forget," the Queen admitted sternly, turning away from him.

"…Apologies, Prin… Your Majesty," said Steiner evasively as he backed out of her room.

Upon hearing the quiet 'click' of the door, the solid ruler and protector of Alexandria melted back onto her bed, shaking with silent fury at her own tears, but still refusing to sleep.

Xxx

"She is not asleep as you ordered, Majesty," the Captain of the Pluto Knights confessed with a bowed head to the King.

"What is she doing then?" the man asked his subject quite indifferently as he continued playing with his first-born son.

"Once again mourning the loss of a… friend, sire."

"Well, tell your Beatrix to get her to sleep. I do not want any child of mine harmed because his mother refuses to sleep." At this point, the little prince giggled as his father tickled him.

"As you wish, sire."

Xxx

"Where is General Beatrix?" the Captain asked the nearest patrolling Pluto Knight he could find.

"In your quarters playing with Chelsea, sir," said Laudo, one of his oldest and most trusted knights.

"Chelsea's still up at this hour?" he asked, stunned. Normally his little girl was asleep by ten, and it was a quarter 'til midnight now.

"I assume so, sir. She was still making noise the last time I passed your quarters, and that was less than ten minutes ago."

"Thank you Laudo."

"Yes sir."

Xxx

Garnet twisted on her bed, barely thinking about the fragile baby nestled in her womb. She was trying to make herself as uncomfortable as possible in order to ward off inevitable sleep. She didn't really care about the child. She already had an heir. Two heirs. Her husband didn't love her though, that's why they slept in separate rooms. He probably cared about as much for their next child as she did—little at all.

In her cold and angry state, nothing mattered much to her anyway. But if it were Zidane's child…

If it were Zidane's child, I would be sleeping right now, and able to hear his voice enough during the day that I could sleep through it when I heard it in the night.

The fact was, it wasn't Zidane's child, and Garnet had already gone through labor enough to know that she didn't want to do it again anytime within the next six months. Her two tragically beautiful children, Vivian and Alexander, were far more attached to their father than to her. This was probably her fault. She had spent most of their short lives sulking in her room, trying to forget things that had inexorably made her into what she was today as a Queen.

She was rather fond of Vivian though. Her bright little eyes, full of wisdom, even at such a young age, reminded Garnet of the girl's namesake. Her inky black hair and her shyness only completed the picture.

However, the poor Queen only cried when she saw her daughter, mourning the loss of yet another friend. Vivi had been the only one of their group of nine that had truly embraced life, however short it had been for him.

Garnet sighed as she thought about her current predicament. Here she was, sprawled out on her bed, squirming to the point where she couldn't sleep even if she had wanted to, and thinking only about lost friends in the dead of night.

Xxx

"I'll look after Chelsea, but His Majesty ordered that you go and make her sleep."

"Hmm," Beatrix thought, handing her seven-year-old daughter over to her father. "Too bad that her pregnancy has put sleeping weeds out of the question. I think we could use some of those right about now."

"Maybe all she needs is some company," Chelsea suggested innocently. Beatrix smiled at her child and stroked her long curly hair.

"Maybe she does. Thank you, sweetheart. Adelbert, I'll go see if she wants some female company. Chelsea, would you like to visit your auntie?" the little girl's smile stretched ear-to-ear as she leapt up. "I'll take that as a yes." She turned to her husband. "Get some sleep darling." She smirked at him, and then walked out, leaving Steiner alone to comprehend the joke.

Xxx

"_Zidane, how were you going to kidnap me?"_

_"Well, we were gonna give you some sleeping weed," he said, grinning. "Why? Have you been having trouble sleeping?" she nodded. "Well, maybe all you need is some company!"_

Garnet relished the feeling of chuckling, even if it was only in a dream, but when she awoke, she was angry. Even with all of her twisting and turning, she had still fallen asleep. She rolled over again, and found two figures standing in her room. She gasped, momentarily forgetting her depression.

"It's just us, Your Majesty," came the voice of her must trusted General.

"You, and…?" the Queen asked.

"Me!" squealed the General's young daughter. Garnet covered her ringing ears.

"Shhhh, Chelsea. You're too loud," her mother reprimanded softly.

"We was wondering of you needed some company!" the little girl said, hopping onto Garnet's bed at her feet. Without warning, the Queen burst into tears, and the child jumped up and hid behind her mommy.

"What did I do mommy?"

"I dunno, sweetie. Garnet, do you need anything?" a concerned Beatrix asked, reverting to the use of Garnet's name, instead of title.

"I need Zidane!" she yelled between sobs into her pillow.

"Mommy, who's Sitane?" Chelsea hissed into her mother's leg.

"Uh, baby, go keep your father company. He hasn't seen you all day."

"Okay!" the little girl said, clearly happy to be leaving this heavy and confusing atmosphere.

"Garnet, His Majesty has ordered that you get some rest. I would give you some sleeping weed, but it would be bad for the baby."

"I don't care about the baby if I could get a single decent night's sleep without having Zidane whispering in my ear!"

"You don't mean that, Majesty," Beatrix said, her steely voice permeating Garnet's cold heart and mind.

The Queen turned over so she could see her General's face. "I just want him here with me, Beatrix. Is that so hard to ask of the Universe?"

"Sometimes. But just remember that it takes time for the Universe to grant such a wish," Beatrix pointed out comfortingly.

"It's had ten years to grant that wish. It's never going to," Garnet moaned in despair.

"You have to be patient. If you push it too much, the longer it will take to grant."

The Queen sighed her defeat. "Perhaps you're right. Good night, Beatrix. I'll see you in the morning."

Xxx

_Three months ago, two dark figures (presumably the King and Queen) had lain spent on their bed after an interesting night of celebrations and sex. The celebrations were because of the Queen's twenty-sixth birthday. The sex was just a by-product._

_Garnet—drunk enough that she could no longer be recognized as the calm, strong Queen—dreamt, remembering her sixteenth birthday, only ten years previous. She smiled as she remembered the thief that had come to kidnap her, and ended up stealing only her heart._

_The dream seemed to change settings to where she lay in a dark room, a silhouette of a man standing in front of her window, illuminated only by the light of a crescent moon. "It's all I can do for you, Dagger," the silhouette said sadly. "I can't be with you, or I would've returned to you long ago. I've only come to give you a gift in a sort of payment for the heart you gave to me. Don't lose it, or I'll probably get snagged by Rusty trying to sneak in here again." and before Garnet could respond, the figure had vanished._

_"Zidane," she muttered into the darkness before the dream changed again._

_"Is this… a garnet?" a young, innocent Dagger asked her thief as they stood before her mother's grave._

_"Yup. There's a story that a long time ago, an ordinary stone made a wish, 'I want to shine.' It passed from person to person, keeping it's wish, and now it's shining in your hand, Dagger," he said, and Dagger could only think about how sweet he was behind that 'bad boy' façade he put on. She thought of something as she stared into the sparkling bloody depths of the gem for which she was named._

_"Zidane, do you still have that dagger that helped me make my last big decision?" she asked suddenly._

_"Yeah, I carry it with me all the time. Why?" he wondered cautiously, and before he could protest, she had already swiped it off him so fast that if he hadn't been worried, he would've been proud._

_"Because I think it's time to do what I want, and not just that that my people want. Zidane, remember me as I was before. For me…"_

_Garnet's dream ended, and when she woke, she woke alone. There was no King lying beside her, but her bed bore obvious signs that some serious and passionate sex had taken place the night before. Garnet couldn't really remember anything. She put on a bathrobe and met her husband and children for breakfast._

_"Darling," she asked the King groggily. "What happened last night?"_

_"I'm not sure, dear. I can't remember a thing."_

_And the next thing she knew, she was pregnant with another prince or princess or both._

Xxx

Garnet woke the next morning feeling far from refreshed. She wasn't sure why her dreams had become so frequent lately—they had been happening for many months.

Instead of dwelling on it, she shook it off and prepared for another day as the Queen of Alexandria.

Xxx

The Queen lay in her hospital bed, soundly asleep after the grueling eight-hour delivery of Freya Neikole til Alexandros. No dreams of Zidane haunting her every breath, just calm sleep.

She could feel a warm finger press to her cheek and stroke the side of her face gently, but when it awoke her, she saw only an open window admitting a warm summer breeze. She turned away from it, ready to fall back into an actual sleep, when the sound of crinkling paper emitted from her hand. She smoothed the paper so her tired eyes could easily read what it said.

She knew that writing. She knew it well.

_I was no dream haunting you, Dagger. I've been here the whole time._

Her hands shook as she pressed the note to her chest. Those few words did wonders to her splintered heart. Dagger. She felt like Dagger again. An older, wiser, more broken version, but Dagger nonetheless.

When the nurse came to check up on her, Dagger asked if she could see her daughter.

When Freya Neikole was brought to her, the baby's eyes lit up enough for the tired Dagger to see their true color: a bluish green, not brown like her siblings' or her parents', but blue-green.

The eyes of a father she would likely never know, but who would be there with her always in the night.

Xxx

Ooooh. I liked it. Tell me if you did too!

kt


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